Newest thriller overpacks violent, clue-filled tension

If you're worried about a lack of action in the newest thriller to hit the big screen, stop. In 84 minutes, "Vantage Point" crams in all the violent, deceitful, chase scene-laden tension you could ask for in a movie. Unfortunately, that's about all this film has going for it. With a screenplay bursting at the seams with good ol' fashioned excitement, there is little room left for much else. "Vantage Point" is a good ride, there's no mistake there, but it's much too dense of a movie, in more ways than one.

The film opens not so much with the unraveling of a plot but with a thud as the viewer is immediately thrown into Salamanca, Spain, where the President of the United States (an underachieving William Hurt) is about to deliver a speech concerning the omnipresent threat of international terrorism. If you've seen the previews, you know that the president is (apparently) assassinated while at the podium. From this bare-bones plot, the movie then goes on to show us the same set of circumstances from seven separate points of view.

The concept is a fun one, and to his credit, director Pete Travis does a good job of filling each vignette with mounting clues through which the audience can begin to sift. With the end of each character's offering comes the tastefully dramatic rewind of the clock--complete with the town plaza's bells tolling as we again hit 12 noon. As the movie progresses however, the connections begin to verge on the absurd, and the believability drops with each new revelation.

In introducing each character, Travis seems a bit self-conscious, using dialogue that explains too much too quickly. Forest Whitaker plays an American tourist who we understand almost immediately as supposed to be pitied (he has marital issues and children he misses.) Sigourney Weaver is an ambitious TV news producer who does little else but serves as a kind of control room as we see the assassination from every camera angle that she does. Dennis Quaid is an aging POTUS secret service agent who is just returning to the job after taking a bullet for his employer a year previous. Fervently loyal and intensely American, Quaid is quickly recognized as the story's prototypical hero-even if he does seem a bit washed up.

Throw in some indignant terrorists, a hardcore former CIA agent turned unwilling assassin, and a little girl lost in the fray (complete with a toppled ice cream cone), and you've got all the ingredients you need for the prototypical action movie. With just enough backstory to get from explosion A to explosion B, "Vantage Point" moves at a rapid pace, and in the process loses its initial luster far before the credits begin to roll.

With that said, I would still recommend "Vantage Point" to any patron who enjoys the now proven recipe for an entertaining thriller. For everything it lacks, there is no denying its inherent entertainment value. I didn't go into the theater expecting a psychological thriller, or an eccentric take on human existence, or even any political statements. I went in looking for some fast cars, big guns, and mild mystery, and that's what I got. If you can stomach underwhelming character development, sparse dialogue, misused Oscar winners and most of the gimmicks we're all used to, "Vantage Point" is a movie for you.